The film had its first advance U.S. screenings at Graceland on January 8, 2026; what would have been Presley's 91st birthday.[9] It was then released exclusively in IMAX cinemas beginning on February 20, 2026.[10] Subsequently, it will be released on conventional cinema screens one week later on February 27, 2026.[11]
Production
Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann originally sought out unseen footage of Elvis Presley from Elvis: That's the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour with the intent of using it in his 2022 Elvis film. Sixty-eight boxes of both 35mm and 8mm footage were found in the Warner Bros. film archives within salt mines in Kansas, including outtakes from both films, plus the "gold jacket" performance from Hawaii in 1957. This footage, however, came without sound. Over the next two years, it was restored and synced to existing audio sources by Luhrmann's team. A 45-minute audio recording was also uncovered of Presley talking about his life story. All this material forms the basis of EPiC.[12][1] Luhrmann has described the project as neither fully a documentary nor a concert film, but "something new in the Elvis canon... that befits the magnitude of Elvis as a performer but also offers deeper revelations of his humanity and inner life."[13]
Various images and short clips from the editing process had been shared by Luhrmann on his Instagram account throughout 2025, including one of the "gold jacket" performance.[14] On May 30, Luhrmann shared footage from EPiC at a Sony Music Vision showcase. On August 13, Luhrmann shared a previously unseen restored clip of Presley singing "Oh Happy Day" and announced that the film would premiere on September 6, 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival.[8][7]
Box office
As of February26,2026[update], the film has made $4.1 million at the domestic box office and $2 million at the international box office, for a worldwide total of $6.1 million.[5][6]
Critical reception
Owen Gleiberman in Variety called the film "one of the most exciting concert films you've ever seen... Elvis in the raw, driven by the awareness that it doesn't get any better than that."[15] Radheyan Simonpillai in The Guardian praised the concert sequences but criticised Luhrmann's "refusal... to meaningfully hold Elvis to account."[16] Steve Pond wrote in The Wrap that EPiC combines both "offstage and onstage Elvis" into an "Elvispalooza (that) is fit for a king."[17]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 86 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Amongst the 25 of the so-called "Top Critics" whose reviews have been published by Rotten Tomatoes not a single one reviewed the film negatively. Resurrecting Elvis Presley at the peak of his showmanship, Baz Luhrmann's truly epic concert documentary restores some joy into The King's legacy, thank you very much."[18]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 88 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]. Amongst the 25 of the so-called "Top Critics" whose reviews have been published by Rotten Tomatoes, not a single one reviewed the film negatively.
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